BRADENTON, Fla. — After Jordan Zimmermann rebounded from a rough start and after Daniel Stumpf experienced his first struggles of the spring, it was Joe Jimenez’s turn.

And once again, the young Detroit Tigers’ reliever showed signs of turning the page on last year’s down debut season. As the Grapefruit League rolled on Thursday afternoon against the Pirates, manager Ron Gardenhire saw an interesting scenario play out in front of him at cozy LECOM Park.

Jimenez, who has been impressive this spring, found himself in a jam in the bottom of the fifth inning. First, Corey Dickerson hit a single. Then, a miscommunication resulted in two errors — Jimenez’s relay to begin a double play went between shortstop Alexi Amarista and Dixon Machado and center fielder Leonys Martin threw the ball away. Suddenly, there were runners on second and third base with nobody out.

“I’m thankful that I got in the situation,” Jimenez said. “Because obviously I wanted to work in a tough situation and that’s what I was in. So I think it was perfect. It made me work more than in other outings, so it came out good.”

With his back against the wall, Jimenez came out nearly perfect. First, he struck out Colin Moran swinging on a foul tip, showing some rare spring training emotion in the process. Then, a lazy fly ball was blown to the warning track in rightfield for a sacrifice fly. Finally, Jimenez framed a nice slider to catch Sean Rodriguez looking and got out of what could have been serious damage.

“Just making good pitches,” Jimenez said. “Making good pitches. My slider was a lot better today and I feel comfortable throwing it.”

Such is the biggest difference between Jimenez now — one who very much looks the part of a back-end reliever — and then, when he struggled through his rookie season in 2017 with an above-average fastball and underdeveloped slider.

Asked how much better the slider has become in a year’s time, Jimenez said, “I’d say a lot better. And it’s not just the pitch. It’s the confidence that I have in throwing it. That’s the main thing now. I feel so much confidence throwing it in every count. Last year to now, I think things have been a lot better. You can see it in the games. Everyone is telling me that.”

Gardenhire has seen it so far this spring, and relayed rave reviews on the part of pitching coach Chris Bosio afterwards.

“The ball was coming out of his hand great,” Gardenhire said. “That’s a heavy ball that he’s throwing right now. We’re right there, kind of behind home plate and that’s a heavy ball and that’s a really good view here, watching the ball come out from his hand and that’s heavy.”

A ‘heavy’ ball, as explained by Gardenhire: “It’s got some life to it.”

The case-in-point in Jimenez’s slider confidence came on that final pitch to Rodriguez, ahead no balls and two strikes. Last season, maybe he would have thrown a slider in the dirt to try and get Rodriguez to chase. But on Tuesday, he was able to locate the breaking ball and freeze the batter.

“That’s what spring training is for,” he said. “To work on everything.”

Jimenez, 23, seems to have a strong shot at making the team out of spring training, perhaps as a late-innings compliment to right-handed set-up man Alex Wilson and Stumpf. His impressive off-season — losing significant weight — has carried over to the spring, where Gardenhire has liked what he’s seen.

“I like that big guy,” he said. “He’s definitely in the mix here, we know that, and I think (Bosio) likes him, too. That’s a good arm. That’s a power arm. Something you can lean on and can enjoy looking at.”